Electrical ablation therapy has been used in medicine for the treatment of undesirable tissue, such as, for example, diseased tissue, cancer, malignant and benign tumors, masses, lesions, and other abnormal tissue growths. Apparatuses, systems, and methods for conventional ablation therapies may include electrical ablation therapies, such as, for example, high temperature thermal therapies including, focused ultrasound ablation, radiofrequency (RF) ablation, and interstitial laser coagulation, chemical therapies in which chemical agents are injected into the undesirable tissue to cause ablation, surgical excision, cryotherapy, radiation, photodynamic therapy, Moh's micrographic surgery, topical treatments with 5-fluorouracil, and laser ablation.
Drawbacks of conventional electrical ablation therapies include risk of permanent damage to healthy tissue surrounding undesirable tissue due to exposure to thermal energy and/or lack of controlled energy generated by an electrical ablation device. As such, when undesirable tissue occurs or originates at or near critical structures and surgical resection presents an increased risk of morbidity associated with damage to that critical structure, conventional electrical ablation therapies may be an unsatisfactory alternative. At times, the ability to apply controlled energy to ablate cells within a target zone may be affected by one or more characteristics of the target zone and/or available application positions provided by ablative electrodes. Solutions to address the above issues are often invasive and conflict with optimal surgical outcomes. Accordingly, minimally invasive electrical ablation therapy capable of accurately targeting ablative electrodes to a target site and delivering controlled energy to ablate cells within a target zone while retaining necessary infrastructure of the surrounding tissue is desirable.